In my previous post I wrote about the energetics of moving into Virgo season- the season to cleanse, purify and organize the different areas of your life.
We focused on HOME, the space that surrounds us - for me this includes my physical home, the environment I live in, my community, family, even the clothes I choose to wear - all part of my HOME. If you haven't read about starting with cleansing your home environment, check that out
Cleansing and purifying is deep spiritual work. It's more than just cleaning, but about learning to really look at a space, create the essence of what feels good to your authentic being, and then take care of it, as you would the most precious things.
To recap, there are four pillars that create the foundation of the lives we build - home, health, purpose and connection.
1. Home represents anything that we have in and around our space.
2. Health includes our physical and mental health, and represents all that we consume and eliminate
3. Purpose encompasses those things that spark joy and interest in us, as well as our careers (even if they just fund your purpose at the moment).
4. Connection includes how you connect with yourself, your loved ones and to Nature, Life, Source/God.
As we move from the most outer layer, the space around us, into the layer of health, it can get a little more challenging as the things that may need a change are no longer separate from ourselves, but very much so part of. On top of that, there is a lot of information constantly surrounding us about what's "best for our health", a billion dollar industry that wants us to buy the next best thing to look like an image that's not us. There are some parts of our "inner home" that we hyper focus on and others that haven't been "cleaned" in decades - and just like our physical homes that take consistent care and maintenance, so do our inner homes- our body AND our mind.
The health and wellness world in the West especially, makes claims on how to fix something fast. The diet culture has created an environment where we are being asked to sacrifice parts of our health to give the impressions or LOOK that we are what society deems as "health". I could go on and on about our diet culture and how much damage it has done to my body personally, but I'm going to keep it to the task at hand: knowing how to truly connect on an intimate level with yourself and make decisions based on YOUR NEEDS.
There are three KEYS to understanding your health (physical and mental) - and they all work together.
Awareness/Intuition
Action: Education, Understanding
Time
AWARENESS:
The first is an important step in a path towards cleaning up your health and at the very foundation of any change. Every sensation, feeling, emotion, thought, ache, yawn, headache, rash etc is a communication from our body and/or mind.
If you think back to all of the best moments in your life, when you felt your best, happiest, most ALIVE - your body and your mind we're likely very much connected.. When taking inventory of your health, it's important to look at both holistically.
BODY and MIND INTUITION
We are what we consume, and also what we eliminate. Nature shows us all around that there is a beautiful balance of giving/receiving, consuming/eliminating. We are part of nature and therefore instinctively know more than we think. Your body will tell you everything you need to know, always, we just have to be open to listening.
To bring awareness to our physical and mental health, we have to look at two things. What we CONSUME and also what we ELIMINATE both physically (around and within us) and mentally (consciously and unconsciously)
Just as we did with our homes, we're going to apply those same principals to our health and take inventory of our physical health- what's around us, and then what's within us.
TRY THIS:
Take a piece of paper or your journal and break this exercise in sections - from the most outer layers to the most inner.
WHO AND WHAT SURROUND YOU. Here are some questions to get you started:
Who do I spend the majority of my day around and do I have boundaries set up to keep my energy [ calm, peace, happy etc. ]
What surrounds me at home, work? Take inventory of how the space makes you feel. Do we need to declutter ( people and/or things)
2. WHAT YOU PUT ON YOU?
What do I put ON and how does it make me feel? Do I love my clothes? What soaps, cleansers, make up, skincare do I use (or don't use).
Do a body scan, look out for how your skin feels and take note of what it may need
3. WHAT YOU CONSUME?
What foods do I eat and how do they make me feel? (not just in the moment).
Am I eating enough of what supports me?
Am I hydrate?
Who do I follow on social media, and does it support my well being?
Taking inventory of all of the things you bring into your space, and just like you would a closet that hasn't been cleaned in months, sort through all of the things that make you FEEL good, and what doesn't. From there you can make more aware, mindful choices.
EMPHASIS ON FEEL GOOD
We have been taught to totally eliminate certain things out of guilt or shame. We're definitely not doing that here. Truly explore what makes you FEEL good, knowing that it can change.
This doesn't mean cut out everything that "experts" SAY is good/bad for you. This is all about you. You are your expert. You know more than ANYONE ever could about your body and how it feels. I personally never look at things as "good" and "bad" in any facet of life - just experiences we try on and digest as information.
Here's a scenario for you: I love a Publix Bakery Donut.
In the moment, I know a donut makes me feel: like a kid again, happy, celebrated, and not to mention it being so DELICIOUS.
I also know, that 30 minutes after I eat that donut, I will literally feel the spike of sugar. I know the gluten will make me a little bloated, and 9xs out of 10, I'll probably get some sort of blemish. I know it's not nutritious enough to support my body (nothing alone is, we need variety), and I also know it's going to interact with my hormones levels and cause me to feel off. My anxiety may spike, and my focus be all over the place.
Depending on your relationship with the [FILL IN WHATEVER THIS IS FOR YOU] it takes an awareness with yourself to make the right decision for YOU.
AWARENESS allows you to balance the scales. To make decisions based on what's right for YOU.. not for anyone else. This will allows you to have a relationship with all the foods you love, and the awareness helps you determine how much of it to consume. It's all a balance.
ACTION:
The second principal after AWARENESS, is TAKING ACTION. In this action comes education, making changes, both making easy and tough decisions. These two are forever working with each other as life continues to evolve and change.
The HEALTHIEST thing I have ever done for myself was to learn to LOVE who I am, both my body and mind. When you love something or someone, you take care of it. You make decisions for that person to experience happiness, and also to support their health.
Knowledge is how we support ourselves. You don't have to know everything to know how you feel, know your body, your worth and your mind, and you have it all.
THERE IS NO END "GOAL"
The funny things about health in our culture is we think there is an end goal. We think we get to a certain weight, PR, a body shape, a pant size etc. . . and the truth is, there is no end to the journey of health until our souls are ready to leave our bodies.
We are continuously changing. We are nature and we are energy and those two things are always moving and changing. We will forever be learning about ourselves and what we know will change as well.
That donut didn't feel the same at 13 as it does now. My body has a different purpose and function now and needs different things to support it in this chapter.
The point of this is to allow things to unfold. Take your time, and listen to the communication all around you.
TIME
This brings us to "time". Our bodies and vessels are here to experience the world. Unfortunately, the "diet culture" our society has created left many of us (especially women) with guilt and shame about what we eat, how much we eat, the shape of our body etc. It's important that we move BEYOND that, and I believe in time we will.
Cleaning up our physical and mental health has NOTHING to do with what's out there in magazines, social media, etc. but it has EVERYTHING to do with our relationship with ourself. This relationship began from day one and will be with you forever, we must prioritize that relationship above the rest.
Remember that we are always evolving. There is no rush. There is no pill or quick fix. Being consistent in your relationship with yourself is important. Support yourself in every way you need. When you want to eat, eat. When you need to move, move. When you feel called to rest, rest.
If you made it through this self-love rant, thank you! I have a huge passion for changing the way we look at our wellness. We all deserve to feel good, and can do more for ourselves than we've been told.
If you would like to work together to explore this on a deeper level, send me a message. This is your life, and you deserve to love it and live it fully!
So it Flows
Alexandra
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